The experience arrives at Redborne

Mike Churchouse of the 'Sheer Sheep Experience' was kind enough to bring his roadshow to the school. As part of the show there were sheep from all parts of the British Isles from Hill sheep to primitve breeds. Mike showed the students the value and merits of each breed and why they are such a vital component of todays agriculture industry and that of tomorrow.


The students and staff thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience and the value it has added to the students City and Guilds Agriculture course and our ELBS students.

Some of the breeds Mike brought along:

The Shropshire

The Boarder leicester

The Lonk









The Teaswater

For more information on Mike and What he does click on our links

British Sausage Week

This week we celebrated National Sausage week as shown here by Noddy Holder. Redborne School Sausages were served in a delicious 'Toad in The Hole' in the school canteen and a BBQ was held on the Farm selling tasty hot dogs at lunch.

The Sausages were a big hit, enjoyed by staff and students. Sausages are always for sale down on the farm priced at £3/lb. This year we will also be experimenting with our own bacon so those of you who have ordered christmas Turkeys may want some Redborne Bacon to grace the top of your Redborne Turkey

Redborne Hog Roast - For Hire

 

Thanks to Cheryl Matthews for producing our Redborne Flyers and Posters

British Sausage Week

Hog Roast

A new arrival in the form of a Hog Roast Machine is very exciting. The machine designed for roasting 45-55kg pigs will feed 100 people at a time with lovely soft roast pork. The great thing about the machine is it cooks using gas for an even controlled cook, perfect pork every time!!!

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The machine will be available for hire, for functions and events supplied with gas and if wanted a rare breed pig for roasting. Come spring there may be the possibilty of a lamb. For more details or to book the Hog Roasting Machine contact the farm at stbwillimas@redborne.beds.sch.uk and we will be happy to give you more information.

Christmas Turkeys

In June we took delivery of our Christmas Turkeys. They were tiny one day old chicks that have since grown into the very tasty birds they are today.

We stock two breeds the Bronze turkey which is a standard British breed used by many small and large scale producers and the much rarer but uniquely gamey Norfolk Black. For years Norfolk blacks were hearded on mass from Norfolk all the way to the streets of London ready for christmas day. They even wore little boots. Today they are considered a rare breed, passed over for faster growing, heavier birds such as the Bronze.

All of our turkeys are free range with a large enclosed space full of greenery (Until they eat it all) which they roam in the day time. At night they have a large naturally lit barn in which to roost safe from Mr Fox.

At christmas the Turkeys are lovingly plucked and dressed by the Students and Staff on the farm. Packaged ready for collection on either the 23rd or 24th December.
If you would like to reserve a Turkey for Christmas then get in touch with Ben Williams at Redborne School Farm either at stbwilliams@redborne.beds.sch.uk or by phoning on 01525842622

Banner Blitz

We are supporting the campaign for British Pork. Check out our banner effort along with many others at http://www.pigworld.co.uk/Pages/Sections/BannersCampaignGallery.html

We work hard to ensure that our pigs are raised to the highest welfare from Farm to Plate

Posters, Flyers and Labels.

Keep a look out for our new Flyers

Something to confuse the students!!!

Why do we have all those male sheep? "We don't", says I. But then why have they got horns? It really is nice to show them something new.

We now have six pedigree Norfolk Horn ewe lambs to go with our new Suffolk's. They will not breed this year but hopefully in time we can make our own Suffolk sheep.

Bee's

We are slowly expanding our bee hives. Currently we have four hives that are occupied thanks to a wandering wild swarm and of course our friends at Cardona and Son who managed to get us two very healthy swarms.

The Work Continues

At Redborne Farm we always aim to maintain the facilities to the best possible standard and so throughout the year we fix and mend, dig and weed as well as all the other everyday tasks

The Horticulture area has been weeded, planted and lovingly tended to by Jan and assorted Helpers. As much Farm scrap as possible has been cleverly sculpted into a very fetching bug hotel to encourage pollinators to the garden area.

The roof on the pig pen had rotted through so the whole lot had to come off which is no mean feet in windy weather. Luckily the rain held off!!!

With the new boards on all we needed was some felt. I never was very good at wrapping christmas presents.

Almost done. At least the pigs are again water tight before the rains came (About thirty seconds after this photo is taken)

Hatfield Show

Our Large Black and Saddleback pigs represented us at the Hatfield Show this year and with both coming a very respectable 4th out of a large class we are very pleased.

The show day comes after a long build up. Months of interacting with the pigs and training them to walk have to be undertaken before they are ready for the ring.

On show day they are washed and oiled before being led through to the ring with the other pigs

The pigs are led with a stick and and big board which allow the pig to be gently guided around the ring. A female (Gilt or Sow) is led by just one person however a boar (Male) must be led by two people as they are a little more excitable.

The whole process is obviously very tiring for the pigs!!!

Sheering

Thanks to Mike Churchouse of 'The Sheer Sheep Experience' all of our Ewes are sporting a much more comfortable summer coat. 


If, like our students you'd like to see Mike in action, follow where he is demonstrating his work on www.sheersheep.co.uk/

Sausage Making Round 2

 Yesterday we made sausages with the 6th form students. We started by mincing the rare breed pork produced on the farm. We prefer a coarse mince as it produces a MEATY banger.

 Once the meat is minced it is mixed with the seasonings and rusk to ensure the sausage holds together.

The mixture is then stuffed into sausage skins using our big shiny stuffer. We made two really tasty mixtures; Pork and Chilli as well as Pork and Sage.

The stuffed sausages are twisted into links by hand. A process which is really straight forward and quite relaxing.

The finished product, in this case Pork and Sage. The links are placed in 6's ready to be sold to hopefully eager customers.

Love on the Farm

This is dedication to animal welfare. Our poor Suffolk Ewe was suffering from a bad foot that needed a good clean and some treatment. You'll be pleased to know she is fine and doing well. In order to treat her feet she needed to be restrained and as you can see the best way of doing this is being demonstrated by one of our 6th Form. In this case a great big cuddle. She looks like she's at home here.

Getting the word out.

6th Form and Yr9 Agriculture Students
show off their hard work

Our small, 
unassuming banner. 


Hopefully this will let everyone know that there is good quality 'British Pork' being reared and  produced locally and available to buy!

Percy and Sootie showing off the product

Today the 6th Form made sausages (which pretty much sold out before the day was out), blog post to follow.

Show Success

Success at the Suffolk Show.

Our Saddleback Gilt came fourth overall in the Gilt Class and Won Reserve Champion in the Rare breed Pig Class.

All of our own pigs are pedigree bred with well traced lineages.  They tend to succeed in the show ring because the students handle them everyday and Kelly puts in so many hours in preparing them for the shows.

Whilst we did not enter the East of England show we will be going to the Hatfield Show (19th - 21st August) with two Gilts, the very successful Saddleback shown here and a Large Black gilt which we have high hopes for.

The Winning Rosettes. Some more to add to the collection. Redborne has a great track record of winning Rosettes at Agricultural shows.

To add to the Redborne Line two new Saddleback Gilts will be joining the Redborne Herd. The Gilts won 'Best in Show' at the East of England.

Piggin' Pictures

New additions

We've had a few new additions to the farm recently, the first being two lovely weaners.  They are a bit different to the pigs usually seen at Redborne because they're ginger.  They are Saddleback and Tamworth crosses.  The Saddleback in them comes from our Saddleback boar, Percy, and the Tamworth from our friends over at Cardona and Sons (http://thecardonagoodlife.blogspot.com/).  They are happily enjoying an outdoor pen and love the attention they get from everyone who sees them.

We've also had some newborns from one of our Black sows.  She has a healthy litter of 11.  Mum and piglets are all doing well.

Making Sausages

Making lamb sausages using Redborne School Farm lamb.

Today I made sausages with Andre and Jane using lamb from our farm.  They are Lamb and Harissa flavour.  They were seasoned with several ingredients, though the main flavouring is Harissa.  The other seasonings are: cumin, coriander, salt, white pepper, tumeric, saffron and thyme.  

We had a small taster test today and can confirm they are delicious!  We have a limited amount available to buy directly from the school farm, where a member of the farm staff will be available to help you between 9am and 4pm Monday to Friday. 

We also have other products for sale, all of which were bred and produced on our school farm.  Our speciality is rare breed pork (we've pork chops, sausages, burgers and joints) but we also have a small amount of lamb in at the moment (chops and shoulder joints).  All items are very reasonably priced and taste fantastic (even if we do say so ourselves!).